British lawmakers on Monday overwhelmingly rejected [483 to 111] a motion to hold a national referendum on leaving the European Union, but Prime Minister David Cameron suffered a bruising as several Conservative Party lawmakers rebelled against his orders and supported the bid.

The revolt within the ruling Conservative Party ranks underscored discontent with Cameron's stewardship - an unhappiness that has grown following his handling of riots that gripped the nation in August and his decision to hire a suspect in Britain's phone-hacking scandal.

Castro denounced...its role in the overthrow of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, saying the "brutal military alliance has become the most perfidious instrument of repression the history of humanity has known."

Post-independence president Felix Houphouet-Boigny encouraged his [?] people to grow cocoa, cotton and coffee that brought wealth to hundreds of thousands of peasant farmers, but he showed scant interest in mining

A local official from the area, N'golo Coulibaly, welcomed the mine in a speech, but warned that he hoped it would not pollute the land so that it could be restored for farming when it expires.

Latest update 03:06 24.10.11

Israel's rabbinate must be stripped of its powers

Haaretz Editorial

For Israel's entire existence, the secular population has had to unwillingly accommodate the Chief Rabbinate's monopoly on matters relating to personal status.

Many people have resented having to wed in a religious ceremony, without which the Interior Ministry will not recognize a marriage. Even Israelis who bypass this burdensome procedure and arrange a civil ceremony abroad find that if they seek a divorce, the state will not recognize it unless it is carried out by that same rabbinical establishment they had tried to avoid.

This outrageous situation has been especially onerous for anyone not considered Jewish under Jewish religious law, halakha, including [>] hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union, but also people born here who detest the compulsion.